BlackBerry Developers are some of the most dedicated mobile developers there are. Working very closely with BlackBerry, developers are able to create some amazing third-party BlackBerry apps using a wide variety of tools provided by BlackBerry.

Through hackathons, Jam Sessions, the BlackBerry Jam conference and other areas, developers are able to go hands-on and learn about new technologies, API's, SDKs and more to continuing developing and improving an amazing set of applications and games available on the BlackBerry platform.

Timeline Beta

Feb 11, 2015
Subway icon set from Pixle now available for free on Github

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If you're building an app one of the key elements of that app is the icons you use and, of course, you always want those to look good as they help end-users navigate their way and make your app look great. You could have the best app in the world, if it looks like crap, no one will care.

After a two month break, Weekend Coder is back with another installment. Today I bring you some Passport specific goodies using the touch enabled keyboard. Ironically enough, I was writing this tutorial about two months ago and this ultimately lead to the development of Work Wide. Perhaps even more ironically, Work Wide shares no code from this tutorial but based off the screenshots you'll probably see the inspiration. However without further ado, let's take a look at some code for keyboard scrolling and gestures.

The BlackBerry Classic is well on its way and to ensure developers can have their apps ready for it, BlackBerry has now released the gold release of the BlackBerry 10.3.1 Native SDK along with a new developer OS (OS 10.3.1.997) for all devices.

Are you a BlackBerry developer who could use $50,000? If so, the folks from Telegram are looking for you. As noted on their Twitter account and company blog, they are looking for a BlackBerry developer or developers to bring their cloud-based mobile and desktop messaging app with a focus on security and speed to the BlackBerry 10 platform.

All BlackBerry devices running BlackBerry 10 have touchscreens and when a user touches things in an app they expect it do something. That means a developer has to listen for these touch events and react. Seems like a no brainer, huh? Well as a developer you need to know what code takes user screen interaction and turns it into an enjoyable and expected behavior. Obviously there is no way for me to explain every possible scenario, there are definitely major ones every developer needs to know about to successfully code a Cascades app.

Whether you're a BlackBerry developer looking to make use of the Amazon Appstore when BlackBerry OS 10.3 arrives or someone who is just interested in learning about what the Amazon Developer Program offers, BlackBerry is hosting a 'Introduction to the Amazon Developer Program' series of webcasts starting on August 26, 2014 2:00:00 PM ADT. In total, there's three webinars that will be of interest.

Whether you're a developer looking to test your apps against BlackBerry OS 10.3 or simply just want to take a look at OS 10.3, you can now download the latest device simulator from the BlackBerry website. Previously it sat at OS 10.3.0.698 but has now been updated to OS 10.3.0.1052. Keep in mind, if you plan on giving it a look you will need some VMWare tools in order to run it all but you can find the full details on the BlackBerry Developer site along with the download links for you respective computer operating system. Shame that BlackBerry Blend link doesn't fully work quite yet.

Jul 22, 2014
The new BlackBerry Vendor Portal is now live for developers

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After a rather lengthy round of beta testing, BlackBerry has now pulled the covers off their new BlackBerry Vendor Portal for developers. The site was long overdue for a makeover, so a lot has been improved and changed for the better. The focus was to emphasize the user experience on the whole, so here's what you can expect if you're a developer and have not yet had access to it.

It's not easy to make it as an app developer. That's the key takeaway from the latest State of the Developer Nation report from Vision Mobile, pulling together data from more than 10,000 mobile developers (including some of you) across 137 countries. With that many developers they were able to get a broad view of what's popular and (more importantly) what's successful in making great apps.

One of the more overlooked additions to 10.3 in Cascades is the new layout called GridLayout. While it is not that impressive of a feature it is definitely a welcomed addition to Cascades, especially for any developers who have attempted to create a grid layout on their own. Since there isn’t much to show with GridLayout, I have also themed my grid into a World Cup Bingo Card with some JavaScript to make it a bit more interesting.

First, let’s take a look at GridLayout. Much like the other layouts (Stack, Dock, Absolute) you’ll define it as a “layout:” within a Container. Inside the GridLayout the only parameter is columnCount. This parameter does exactly what it sounds like, sets the number of columns. For example:

Container {
layout: GridLayout {
columnCount: 5
}
}

For a Bingo card we need 5 columns, so the columnCount is set to 5. From here each defined parent component will represent a “cell” in the grid and will be placed next to each other from left to right until the columnCount is reached and then it will start a new row. So for instance a Label will be considered a component and so will a Container. However any children inside that Container won’t apply to the columnCount of the GridLayout. So consider the following code and QML preview:

Notice how since the two Labels (2 and 3) are inside of a Container they are contained within a single cell within the GridLayout. For my Bingo Card example, to help keep myself organized I find it best to use custom components in conjunction with GridLayout. I created a custom component in BingoTile.qml and each cell will be made up of the component BingoTile. Now my GridLayout would look something like the following:

That’s about it for GridLayout. No other options available. This is disappointing because I was hoping to have a bit more customization much like a table in HTML where you can set cells to span over multiple columns or rows. Additionally, I was hoping for the ability to have border decoration and cell padding and spacing (again more features from basic HTML tables). If you take a look at the source code you’ll see that in my custom component of BingoTile.qml I mimic borders for this example. So while it is not an easily set parameter it is definitely possible to do in GridLayout.

Now to make this GridLayout sample more interesting and themed to the World Cup, I’ve randomly generated what goes into each BingoTile using a couple JavaScript functions. First I have a switch function that contains all the “soccer” (football for the rest of the world) events I could think of, which was 33 different events. And that function looks like:

Next I have a function that creates an array of 24 unique numbers between 1 and 33 because a Bingo card has 25 tiles with 1 free space. And I did not want any two tiles on the Bingo card to be the same. The last part of this function runs each of my 24 unique numbers in the array through the switch function and applies them to each of my BingoTile’s tileLabel. And that looks like:

Additionally I have added an application menu so you can generate a new card by swiping down from the top and triggering the “New Card” action.

If you check out the source code I’ve posted to github below, you’ll see I have added a few other features such a TapHandler on each BingoTile to change the background from white to green when tapped. And there are a few other features thrown in. With a little decoration and a few more features, this could be a "real" app. Feel free to check out the source code and for any non-coders out there I have attached the .bar file too if you want to load up the Bingo card and play along while watching the last two games of the World Cup this weekend.

Jun 25, 2014
Missed the BlackBerry 10.3 Jam Direct event? You can now watch the replay

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If you happened to miss out on the BlackBerry 10.3 Jam Direct event held yesterday, you can now get yourself caught up by watching the replay. Whether you're a developer or just someone who is interested in some of the changes coming with BlackBerry OS 10.3, it's something you'll want to check out. it's over two hours long, so make sure you sit aside some time to watch it all.

Learn how you can integrate BlackBerry 10.3 features into your app to provide your users with the best, most productive BlackBerry experience yet

Enjoy an interactive Q & A session with BlackBerry's development experts

Get an overview of the gold release of the BlackBerry 10.3 Developer Preview OS, simulator, and SDKs

The BlackBerry Jam Direct webcast for developers took place today and with it the release of the Gold SDK. We already saw the Dev OS updated to 10.3.0.700 for developers to use for testing and today we see Gold SDKs released, as well as the Simulator which let's you try out the upcoming BlackBerry Passport's touch-enabled keyboard. During the webcast, BlackBerry went through the new APIs available to developers, such as Bluetooth LE, new headless triggers and telephony (retrieve phone number, hold call etc).

Jun 23, 2014
BlackBerry Dev OS 10.3.0.700 now available for most devices

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If you're a developer, testing your apps against the latest OS is a pretty crucial step in the process. Thankfully, BlackBerry has now released BlackBerry OS 10.3.0.700 and made it available for most devices although it does appear as though some versions may still be uploading to the developer download site.

If you're reading this and you're not a developer, then please consider this is NOT a full OS and while it might be cool to download and take for a spin it's missing some crucial portions so don't plan on using this as a 'daily driver' so to speak. You've been warned, that's all I can do.

That warning aside and knowing some will entirely ignore it, you can hit the links below to grab the OS for your specific device. I should note though, the servers are being hit pretty hard at the moment so maybe give it an hour or so and try then. Be sure to stop by the CrackBerry Forums to discuss more.

It’s been a few weeks since I’ve posted in the Weekend Coder series, and what a few weeks they’ve been when it comes to BlackBerry apps and development. Specifically, what does the Amazon partnership mean for native development? Obviously no one knows for sure but regardless of what the future holds, it won’t affect my passion for coding for BlackBerry 10. I plan to keep developing, in Cascades, because I enjoy it. And today I am going to share some of the new features 10.3 brings to the ActionBar.

The most obvious change to the ActionBar is the introduction of the signature action. Defining which action you’d like to be your signature action is as simple as defining the placement parameter.

If you're a BlackBerry developer looking to learn more about BlackBerry 10.3 and how it can make your apps better, BlackBerry is hosting a BlackBerry Jam Direct Virtual event on June 24th at 11:00 - 12:30pm EST. There's several items on the agenda for the event, which we've outlined below.

Learn how you can integrate BlackBerry 10.3 features into your app to provide your users with the best, most productive BlackBerry experience yet

Enjoy a live, interactive Q & A session with BlackBerry's development experts

Get an exclusive sneak peek of the gold release of the BlackBerry 10.3 Developer Preview OS, simulator, and SDKs

Of course, you don't HAVE to be a developer to attend. If you're just looking for more info on 10.3 or contemplating picking up BlackBerry 10 development you're also welcome to register and attend using the links below.

Today is my one year anniversary of writing Weekend Coder posts here on CrackBerry. Much the same as companies report end of year data (sales numbers, market share, etc), I thought it would be fun to do the same with app data. So I am going to do exactly that using the data that BlackBerry provides in the “Download Reports” section of the BlackBerry World Vendor Portal.

As the well-known saying goes, “A journey of a 1000 lines of code starts with a single import statement”… Oh, wait that’s not a saying at all is it? Well here's something that is well known for many new developers, it is often difficult to figure out how to get started. And the second biggest challenge is what to do next after getting started. The first is a relatively easy question to answer and for the second, while there is no single correct answer there are definitely better paths to choose than others.

So, here I hope to dig back into previous Weekend Coder posts and put them into an order that should help new developers progress through Cascades.

For BlackBerry developers, having the latest and greatest tools to make apps is important and to help keep things moving along, BlackBerry has now released their BlackBerry Tools for Android Development 2.0.2 Beta. The last update to the tools came back in October, so a new update is great to see. The list of feature additions is pretty long for this one but we’ve got them all for you past the break.

Much like musicians are often inspired by each other, I think that app design can be inspired from others too. A few weeks back I showed my interpretation of how to make a custom TabbedPane inspired by the Sochi Olympics app and today I have another design to share. Before I go any further, please don’t confuse this with stealing code/ripping off apps. These examples all contain original code that I am sharing for others to get an idea of a way something can be done.

This weekend I have something a little different for this series, and I think it is something that developers and non-developers alike will enjoy. The best I can explain it is as a self-reflection of developing for BlackBerry 10 and specifically centering my thoughts on one of my apps, Random Stories+.

First a little background, Random Stories+ (RS) is an ad lib style app/game where it asks you for various words by parts of speech (verb, noun, adjective, etc) and fills those words into a story to make a potentially silly sounding story. Version 1.x of RS was one of the first apps I ever wrote and I did the majority of the development prior to BlackBerry 10 launching. After launch it was never a particularly popular app so it kind of fell by the wayside and I moved on to other projects.

From a development standpoint this is a relatively easy scenario to code. Pretty much have the user start a story (2 length options, quickie with 5 blanks and epic with 10 blanks) and have a function randomly select one of the stories for which the user could then enter their words. After the user presses submit those words would be concatenated into the rest of the story. Hilarity ensues?

At this point, you may be wondering why I am telling this story. Well the short answer is simple, self-review and self-improvement. The long answer, however, I think is much more interesting and has screenshots!

I have seen many people write articles about if you look at your old code and you barely understand it means you have advanced as a developer. And in my case, with this code being over a year old, this couldn’t be more true. Let’s first take a look at the workflow of the 3 main releases of the app:

Since BlackBerry 10 Cascades came out a little less than two years ago there have been three major releases of tools and APIs for developers to play around with. And I, like many weekend coders, have spent most of my time trying to use those tools for their somewhat obvious purposes. But as the tool releases have slowed and we have all had time to gain some mastery of the provided tools it’s time to for us developers to create some custom user interfaces and experiences.

There’s been a lot of buzz about the new Sochi Winter Olympics app, obviously from end users following the Olympics and from developers too. When the app first launched, it looked like it had to be an Android port or WebWorks but it ran way too smoothly to be either. We later confirmed that it was written in Cascades, with all custom effects and navigation.

The developer of Charlottesville Ballet, Steve Jernigan is CEO of Cloudspyre, LLC, has now taken to the MoDev site to explain a little bit of the background process for entering the contest and why it was such a great experience for him. The title of his blog posting says a lot about it - Why BlackBerry is Awesome. Though I do encourage you to read the full post for yourself, here's a bit of what Steve had to say.

In the months leading up to every release of Cascades, BlackBerry provided a roadmap of what’s ahead. However, after the release of 10.2 there haven’t been any updates to that roadmap. I have reached out to my contacts at BlackBerry Dev Relations and they’ve assured me that there is still new tools being worked on, they just haven’t updated the roadmap for whatever reason.

So since there is no clear sign of what’s ahead, the next best thing to do is what we do best here at CrackBerry; wildly speculate and create a wish list! I’ve compiled a short list of ideas of my own as well as ones from talking with some fellow Cascades developers.

Expand GestureHandler: Currently we have gestures such as single tap, double tap, and pinch but no “swiping” gesture. I know it is possible to create your own touch events that look for “swipe like behavior” but why not add this to core functionality? This expansion could be as simple as the four basic directions with minimal customization.

ListView Improvements: Lists are everywhere in apps, from news feeds to chat messages. One idea that comes to mind is the ability to have the list loop. It is possible to have a Picker loop which follows the same general structure as a ListView but has a different use case and user experience. Another idea is to allow a ListView to have top down content but render bottom up. The idea here is for lists where the most recent event is at the bottom and a user would scroll up to see previous items, think message logs.

More Headless Triggers: I’m not trying to beat a dead horse here but there are some obvious triggers missing from the few that are available. Long running headless is a bandaid solution to having so few triggers. The obvious missing events that come to mind are time/date, incoming call, call ended, and incoming message. I know there are many others but those are the ones I hear come up the most.

Support Qt5: I don’t personally use much pure Qt but I know many others have been very vocal about only having Qt4.8. One of the biggest reasons is that Qt5 adds Qt Quick predefined controls as well as overall improvements throughout the framework.

Finish the delayed items on the roadmap. There are four items, accent colors, simple grid layout, image from url, and list rearrange, on the current roadmap that are listed as delayed with no target release date. Honestly these were some of the things I was most looking forward to in 10.2. Accent colors is already available for WebWorks developers and allows for a nice pop of color without changing too much of the core BlackBerry 10 look and feel. And simple grid layout may be for selfish reasons because making the grid in Logic Puzzles was a huge pain.

I’ve heard other requests and have a few of my own but I think the ones listed above have a broad appeal to the community. However, feel free to add your own API improvements and requests in the comments below that you’d like to see added to the next Cascades release. Please keep these from a developer standpoint and not end user features.

One of the easiest ways to make your app have a unique look is to change the text styling. Among basic changes such as color and size that have always been available in Cascades, 10.2 brings the option to change the font to any .otf or .ttf font included in your code. Let’s take a look at the available text styling and how to implement them in your app.

November is the 10 month mark for BlackBerry 10 so I thought it would be fun to reflect on the past 10 months from a developer’s perspective. I believe BlackBerry 10 has come a long way in a short amount of time and as a hobbyist developer I have had relatively good success in terms of downloads and sales.

I think the best place to start is to take a look at the tools BlackBerry has deployed for developers. On launch day, January 30th, we had version 10.0 which contained many of the basic APIs required to make apps in a variety of languages. Out of the gate, BB10 has supported 4 very different platforms: Native code/Cascades (C++, QML), WebWorks (HTML), Adobe Air (Actionscript), and Android Runtime (Java).

Love it or hate it, BlackBerry 10 devices no longer have the “BlackBerry menu” button we were all familiar with on legacy devices. That is not to say there are no longer menus in BlackBerry apps, in fact developers have three types of menus at their disposal. Let’s take a look at each and discuss the use case for each. Also I encourage non developers to read this one to learn where developers are putting menus in their apps.

Earlier this week, BlackBerry posted on their dev blog an official note about the Android Runtime update coming to users as part of OS 10.2.1.

There is more to 10.2.1 than updating the runtime from Gingerbread 2.3 to Jelly Bean 4.2.2 -- this is also the update that allows BlackBerry app developers to build headless apps -- a much sought after feature by native BlackBerry app developers and BlackBerry 10 owners alike.

That said, the deeper integration between BlackBerry 10 and Android in 10.2.1 is garnering a massive amount of attention from users, as with this update BlackBerry 10 owners can now install Android .apk files (actual Android apps) directly onto their phone.

With a high percentage of Android apps compatible and working flawlessly on BlackBerry 10.2.1, this update basically means the perceived "app gap" in the BlackBerry ecosystem has been closed, with only a little crack remaining. Looking at the top 50 Android apps in the Google Play store, nearly all of them will work perfectly on BB10, as will tens and literally hundreds of thousands more.

With a big move like this there are a lot of questions to be asked. Luckily, we have answers. And where we didn't have them ourselves, we asked BlackBerry's VP of Developer Relations and BlackBerry Ecosystem Builder, Alec Saunders for some clarification.

While designing my first app that is intended for media consumption (rather than my usual puzzle games), I quickly realized that it is necessary to to take into account orientation changes. The orientation is the direction the device is being held, either landscape or portrait. The idea of properly handling orientation is to effectively use screen real estate for both use cases.

Going live with coverage isn't easy, and we have some solid experiencing doing it now thanks to CrackBerry Live at BlackBerry Live, so I'll be flying down to SF to give a helping hand to Android Central's Phil Nickinson and Andrew Martonik as they take to the stage and interview developers, session leaders and other attendees next Monday and Tuesday (28th/29th). Tune into www.androidcentral.com/sdc13 for all of the livestreaming action and show coverage.

These days a lot of mobile developers build on multiple platforms, so I know we have a lot of BB10 developers reading this who are also developing for Android. So if you're in San Francisco next week, you should totally pick up a ticket (they're only $299 and there's still some left) and swing on by the event. And if you have any hot apps to show off or want to get on the Android Central Live show, hit up the link below for more details and you can likely do just that.

Of course, if you find me in the evening (typically near the lobby bar) and mention this post, your next drink is on me. It's the CrackBerry way - even if I'm helping out an Android show. :)

All BlackBerry Developers

The Web Directions Code conference kicks off in Melbourne, Australia on May 1-3, 2013 and as part of the conference they'll be holding a Blackberry App Competition for Australian and New Zealand residents. Show the world what you can do with the mobile Web, submit as an entry and you're in plus, thanks to the BlackBerry 10 platform tools, that's hella simple.
You don't even need to be in...

With BlackBerry Jam Americas happening next month in Orlando, the official BlackBerry Developers Blog has kicked off a new funny but educational video series called the BlackBerry Jam Unplugged. The goal of the series being not to inundate folks with a bunch of heavy talk, huge blog posts but instead, make the passing of development information easily consumable and fun.
Last year we...

We've talked about the Built for BlackBerry Program and the 10k Developer Commitment Program many times before and developers will know that app submission deadlines have been changing a bit lately due to the huge influx of app being submitted in the run up to the BlackBerry 10 Launch. You may have seen the Built for BlackBerry section in BlackBerry World already, where some apps have already...

If you're a developer who uses WebWorks to code up your apps, you'll be pleased to hear that the WebWorks SDK has been updated. The main thing added to the update is support for the Payment Service, this means you can now add in-app purchases, one-time purchases and subscription-based services. If this is something you have been waiting for, then get your WebWorks SDK updated today.
More...

The Dev Alpha C has just been shown during the General Session at BlackBerry Jam Europe. Many developers got themselves a Dev Alpha A or B in order to aid in their development to build for the BlackBerry 10 platform. However, it was to build for the BlackBerry Z10 model. With the BlackBerry Q10 coming later this year, developers will want to start building for that model so in comes the Dev...

Not long into the BlackBerry Jam Europe opening session and BlackBerry is dropping lots of good things on us. First, it was announced that the BlackBerry 10.1 SDK is now available, which allows for building BlackBerry Q10 applications. Also, the BlackBerry World vendor portal for the BlackBerry Q10 is now open. Next, BlackBerry announced updates to the Built for BlackBerry program including a...

The calm before the storm. Well, sort of. Richard and I are in Amsterdam for BlackBerry 10 Jam Europe so here's a little taster of what's to come. Tomorrow morning kicks off with the keynote where hopefully we will get some interesting news. Yes, I know the last week has been hectic enough already but we need some good stuff for the developers that have travelled from far and wide to be here...

BlackBerry Jam Europe is this week and there lots to look forward to. Plenty of developers are making their way to Amsterdam as well as a couple of Team CrackBerry. However, if you're not able to go to Amsterdam, perhaps you can make it to London for a BlackBerry 10 Mini Jam.
The event is brought to you by Skills Matter and is sponsored by BlackBerry. You will be able to get valuable tips...

In the last few weeks, developers who qualified for the Limited Edition device have been submitting their applications to trade up from their Dev Alpha. However, those who are on the Verizon network were receiving emails about an issue with the CDMA carrier in the USA. Today BlackBerry released a statement concerning the availability:
Many developers have already submitted their requests...

While in Las Vegas for CES this year, Alec Saunders, VP Developer Relations, and Marty Mallick, Sr. Director, Strategic Business Development, set out to prove how dedicated that are to BlackBerry developers. They took to the top of the Stratosphere Hotel to take the longest standing free fall jump in the world - 855 feet down - all to show their support for BlackBerry developers. Very cool to...

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